184 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXV. 



be in the rainy season. In close proximity to the falls stands a 

 huge Kauri Pine tree — the last of a whole forest — which by good 

 fortune has been preserved from destruction, and is pointed out 

 to visitors as the last of its fellows. 



After viewing the' falls for a short time, I proceeded to 

 Kuranda, two miles further on, and was soon comfortably located 

 at the Kuranda Hotel. I noted with astonishment the number 

 of indigenous and introduced weeds which flourish in this locality, 

 the most pestiferous being the Sida Weed, Sida rhomhifolia, L., 

 commonly called Sida retusa, which bears countless seeds, which 

 are distributed in various ways, sometimes in the hoofs of stock. 

 The Prickly Pear, Oinmt'ia vulgaris, Mill., has a fruit full of 

 seeds, which is eaten by birds, and thus carried about the 

 country. Goat Weed, Ageratum conyzoides, L., Black-eyed 

 Susan, Thunhergia alata, Boj., Lantana camara^ L., and Bry- 

 ophyllum calycinum, Salisb., are all met with in the neighbour- 

 hood. Approaching the surrounding scrub the somewhat 

 globular fruit of Fandamis monticola, F. v. M., one of the screw 

 pines, showed up conspicuously. The fruit-spike is usually 

 about a foot long, with numerous fruitlets about half an inch in 

 length, closely packed, and bearing a very similar appearance to 

 a pineapple. A plant to be avoided when walking through the 

 scrub is the Gympie or Mulberry Nettle, Laportea 7noroides, 

 Wedd. It grows to a height of 15 feet, covered with most 

 virulent stinging hairs, which, if one accidentally touches, leave 

 an effect for weeks, or even months. Near at hand, however, is 

 a cure, although not generally known ; it consists of applying the 

 milky latex from the base of the stem of the Cunjevoi or Native 

 Taro, Alocasia macrorhiza, Schott., which grows plentifully 

 among the scrub. Progress through the dense vegetation is 

 greatly hindered by two species of Lawyer Palms, Calamus 

 australis, Mart., and C. Muelleri, Wendl. The former is the 

 larger, but they both grow to a great length, and have been 

 known to measure 300 feet. One is very soon imprisoned by 

 the thorny prickles of the leaf-sheath. One of the features of the 

 scrub is a climbing fig tree, Ficus stipulata, Thunb., which I 

 noticed in all stages of growth, from the tiny seedling sending 

 down its delicate shoots from the fork of a tree of larger growth, 

 where it was ensconced, to the fully developed tree. As the 

 seedling grows its roots increase in size and number, forming a 

 complete network round even the largest of trees, eventually 

 covering it completely, thus depriving it of light and air, when it 

 slowly dies, and the roots of the fig tree penetrate its decaying 

 wood. The beauty of the scrub increases the further inward one 

 proceeds, and quite defies my powers of description. Giant 

 trees are interlaced by innumerable climbers, many bearing 

 beautiful flowers, such as the Wax Flower, Hoya australis, R. Br., 

 and the lofty climber Rhapliidophora Lovellm, Bail, whose habit 



